I enlarged the cut to be about 11x11, stitched through the grid and mounted over patterned paper from the Main Scrapbook Circle Kit, Here + There. I bought both Add Ons this month (Time Flies and This Place), so I had two 6x6 pads to use to fill my squares.

Once you have the grid place in shape, you get to have fun decorating. You can use die cuts, chipboard stickers, rub ons, epoxy shapes, pretty much anything goes when it comes to filling in squares. Here I stamped the exclusive Scrapbook Circle stamp on a square of patterned paper and then added a rub on.

Do you scrap lift yourself? Has owning a digital die cut machine advanced your scrap lifts to a new level?

Sep 15, 2014

You all know how much I love my Simple Stories. Well this month I got to combine my love for Simple Stories with my love for Therm O Web Adhesives. Simple Stories is one of those manufacturers that is so fun to play with when you have lots of Therm O Web adhesives.

Of course Simple Stories has many self adhesive embellishments such as chipboard stickers

and epoxy dots,

but they also have lots of die cuts and elements on their patterned paper that are fun to fussy cut. The smaller speech bubbles can be cut out and adhered with a Therm O Web Mini Runner. Then, take a 3x4 card and fussy cut around the frame shape for a fun journaling element that can be popped up on Therm O Web 3D Zots.

Glitter Dust Decorative frames can be fun additions too.

Punch or cut a shape just slightly smaller than the Decorative Frame. The Glitter Dust frames are self adhesive so just peel and stick onto cute patterned paper for a fun element.

And here is a tip. If you don't want to poke a hole through your project for the brad and die cut combinations, simply close the brad wings and place a Therm O Web Medium or Large Zots right over the closed wings.

Press down on your project and you'd never know the brad hadn't been poked through!

Sep 13, 2014

Hi Simple Stories fans! Rebecca Keppel here today with a Simple Stories SN@P album documenting the fun of summer. Simple Stories created the SN@P albums and pieces with people like me in mind. People who love the idea of mini albums, but kind of freak out at the idea of making them lol! When you typically create layouts and design with a larger space such as 8.5x11 or 12x12, the smaller format can be a bit scary. Not so with SN@P albums. Much of the work is done for you and the parts that are not done are super user-friendly. You can easily complete an entire album in one weekend. I used the Good Day Sunshine collection to make a SN@P album documenting all the fun we had this past summer. The Teal Chevron Burlap album is gorgeous as is, but I decided to tie some trims and add a 4x6 card with stitching for the cover mounted on a scallop cut piece of wood grain paper. It's always nice to have the year on the cover too.

The inside cover page says it all, doesn't it?!

The first page features the last day of school! Anyone already looking forward to that again? The 6x8 SN@P pages feature awesome die cut pages and they really don't need any embellishing at all, they create such a statement on their own. I love how you can see the next page through the die cut letters.

I am in love with the Pocket Page formulation here. It includes two 4x4 pockets perfect for either Instagram photos OR the 4x4 cards and four 2x2 pockets again perfect for mini photos or cards. The sun die cut page is AWESOME! I loved backing it with a sky page :)

I used the full 6x8 pages to introduce each month of the summer.

On the back of the intro page I used a typewriter to journal about the main events from that month. On the right you see another die cut page. This is one that came with the album. It is awesome as-is, but I thought it was sun to spritz it with some coordinating mist.

Another die cut page - LOVE THEM - and you get a bunch in the pack. This Pocket Page is fun for a bunch of photos and one journaling card. I like to mix handwritten and typed journaling in one album.

Love that the 3x4 cards are double sided so the green polka dot is just the backside of the card from the previous page. I simply added a chipboard sticker to spice it up ;) On the right you can see a couple of pictures that were smaller than the pockets. One is mounted on a 4x4 card, and one is stuck in a pocket with a 2x2 card behind it. Don't worry about having just the "right" size.

In this whole spread there is really only one 4x4 photo, but it feels like there is lots going on thanks to the Good Day Sunshine cards, brads, stickers and SN@P pages.

Here is July's introduction. No photos at all here, just journaling.

The SN@P cuts are fun too. On the left one is backed with a 4x6 card so you see a fun pattern through the lettering.

I used the 4x6 transparencies on a photo from the previous page and the one on the left here. What's nice about the 4x6 pockets is that you don't need to adhere the transparency, just slip it into the pocket in front of the photo.

The banner die cut SN@P page is another of my favorites. I love that it is a unique size and shape that allows you to see the page behind it.

The 6x8 pages can also be used to highlight one large photo like I've done on the right here.

And again here on the left. Stickers and chipboard can be fun on the empty space of a photo.

Here is the introduction of August the final month.

Here I have more journaling and a 4x6 photo that I made into a vertical strip collage before printing. On the right is the last title page and introduces our last weekend of the summer.

I had fun added little bits to the top of pages with binder clips. The Today is a Simple Stories die cut available in the Silhouette online store.

Last, but not least, the final page to my album.

This album was fast and simple to pull together, but I love the colors, the bits and pieces and of course all the memories it holds! I can't wait to make my next SN@P album!

Sep 10, 2014

I love machine stitching on layouts. It is a quick touch that adds a nice homemade feel. Usually I just add a border around a page or little bits of stitches here and there as accents. Usually I stick with white thread for all my stitching. But on this layout, the Pink Paislee patterned paper from this month's Scrapbook Circle main kit Here & There, lent itself to a more thought out process.

I loved the rays in different colors with my photo at the point where all the rays join. So I decided to accent each ray with coordinated color machine stitching. I started by laying out spools of thread in each color I needed.

Then I stitched lines in each color on each side of each ray. I had to switch out my needle thread, but since I use a clear bobbin thread I never have to change bobbins. Wow, do I love the person who invented clear thread. I remember my Mom trying to teach me to sew when I was a kid and making a new bobbin for each new color you needed to stitch with!

You can see close ups of the coordinated stitching here.

Do you use machine stitching on your layouts? Do you stick with a neutral color thread or do you prefer to mix it up?

Sep 8, 2014

YIKES! A winner for my MME drawing should have been posted by now, but....people got sick, work got busy, kids had too many acitivities...you know - life happened! But I did want to pick a winner and send out goodies and those goodies are going to Dawn...

Sep 3, 2014

BasicGrey's Evergreen collection includes beautiful patterned papers, but one of my favorite things about BasicGrey is that they always include amazing embellishments. Not all of them are self adhesive though. Not a problem if you have plenty of Therm O Web adhesives! Therm O Web Zots can be really helpful for wood veneer pieces like in this layout.

For small pieces stick them directly on Small Zots.

For thin wood veneer like the die cut words, roll a Small Zots into a thing strip to adhere to the layout.

The nice thing about using Zots is you know once you adhere it, that wood veneer is not going anywhere!

BasicGrey also has fun die cuts in the Evergreen collection. Use Therm O Web 3D Zots to give them dimension.

Then "hang" those ornament die cuts from twine.

Use Medium or Large Zots for larger wood veneer pieces.

USe 3D Zots to pop up a sentiment die cut like this on a card.

So next time you break out a bunch of fun embellishments remember to use Therm O Web Zots!